Hall-Bowman-Thomas Connection - Carrie Thomas

 

Hall-Bowman-Thomas Connection

Carrie Thomas

I have written extensively (both fiction and non-fiction) about life in small-town and rural mid-American, based on life-long experience and observations. The Carrie Bowman Thomas family relationships provide an excellent example of typical relationships in this environment, traced back to first Euro-American settlement in the region. In this case we are looking at The Star Community located a few miles north of Coon Rapids located in western Iowa.

Obit of Claude Thomas, husband of Carrie Thomas

I recently wrote about the first settlers in this area being the Thomas H. Hall family in 1868.
Hattie Hall was a five-year-old in that family. In 1883, she married George Bowman listed in that story as another of the first settlers. Their first child born later that year was Caroline, per the 1900 census. She was always known as Carrie in the community. As noted in the clipping, above, she married Claude Thomas in 1908. They lived their long lives together on their farm on the western half of the same section of land where The Star Church was located in the southeast corner. My memory is that they lived in a big, boxy farm house located on a hill in that section of land at the end of very long driveway coming in from the west.

Claude and Carrie, along with the four of their five children that lived to adulthood, were very active in The Star Church and the Star Community in general. The children attended The Star School and Coon Rapids High School over the years. Their children were:
Orel Elwin Thomas (1909-1993)
Beryl Wilbur Thomas (1911-1911)
Verle W Thomas (1911-1958)
Arnold H. Thomas (1913-1988)
Edith J Thomas Kreger (1922-1987)

Speaking generally, this family well represents the typical rural-small town distribution of relationships.

First, Orel married Margaret Pingery. Margaret was a town girl in Coon Rapids (like my mother). She was one of a large family, mostly females, that married a variety of spouses in town, in the country and out-of-town (I will likely write more about this family at a later time). My Mom, daughter of a bank clerk, always considered herself a “town-girl” but married a farmer and did well at it… as did Margaret. Orel and Margaret lived just a mile west of the farm where I grew up. They lived on the county line between Carroll and Greene counties, on the Greene county side, like us. Their children, Pat and Wilson, attended Willow #3 one-room school, with me. (See Wilson Obit, yesterday)

Beryl and Verle were obviously twins, Beryl died as an infant, Verle married my aunt, LVene Smith, my Dad’s sister, who lived on a farm within two miles. They would have gone to school together. Verle and LVene made their home just to the north of Claude and Carrie in a farmhouse along the road. They had two sons, David and John. Verle died far too young at 47 - though not uncommon. Not only were they active in The Star Church, LVene was also the teacher at The Star School for a number of years.

Arnold married a girl from out-of-town (another common practice), Julia Hicks.
They lived on a farm less than a mile to the west of Claude and Carrie. They had three daughters: Rebecca, Sharon and Claudia. They were all active in The Star Church as well.

Edith married Floyd Kreger, from Fort Dodge, and moved there after their marriage. Again, a common occurrence with small town and rural folks… marrying someone from away, and moving away.

Even with solid roots in one location, people may choose to stay there or they may choose to move off to another location. Such in life. It makes very fascinating observing, and makes the study of family history and genealogy such an enjoyable activity. Thanks for coming along on this little journey with me.


Families are Forever! ;-)